The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid!

2023 made it even easier to ask for help with the rise of AI. As if finding help was not easy enough with asking Siri or Alexa or using one or two thumbs to Google something. Now that the world has been so far removed from the exhaustive burden of having to walk or drive to a library and look something up in a book, we look forward to 2024. We have nothing to fear this next year because AI will help us find financial security, give us better advice than any person and make our cities safe.

The original recipients of the letter to the Hebrews needed help. They were being persecuted for their faith. We can imagine the content of their calls for help when we read some of the verses from Hebrews 12, 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. The Hebrews were tired. They were close to giving up their faith. Their struggles had not brought them to martyrdom, but the probability of it was growing. The writer to the Hebrews then used the illustration of a father and his children to help them understand their circumstances writing, 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? The writer went on to explain that a loving father disciplines his children, and his children respect him for it. Then, he made the point that God knows far better how to deal with us than our earthly fathers, even when he allows discipline. Finally, he wrote, 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. The help given to the persecuted Hebrews was to lift their heads from their immediate troubles and look up to God. God would see them through the temporary and bring them to the unshakable as we read at the end of Hebrews 12, 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.

Looking for help in the same place as the Hebrews is a struggle. Our reading for this evening comes from Hebrews 13. This is the concluding chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and is a list of encouragements. You could call it a list of resolutions. Our struggle with the three resolutions pulled from the full list of Hebrews 13 is not that we do not see them as areas we need help in, but to look to the same place the Hebrews were directed to in their persecution, God. The three resolutions are

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith…14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

You struggle to look to God when over the last year inflation rose, your roof had to be replaced, you added some emergency room bills to your debt, you lost a job, etc. You struggle when considering how to imitate your Christian friends and family since taken to heaven in a world where anti-Christian lifestyles are accepted with great fanfare, basic Biblical knowledge is scarce, truth is subject to each individual and setting aside Sunday morning or a few other times for Bible study and worship are written over on schedules. You struggle to look up at the golden city of Jerusalem when the city you live in now is the one you can see, smell, feel and touch with new issues small and large each day. Our struggle is the distance between the here and hereafter. It is a struggle summarized by the opening verse of Hebrews 11, 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

As we struggle to lift our eyes up to the Lord for help, God has given us things to look at here. Again, we read in Hebrews 13, 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Going from the lesser to the greater, pause and consider all the things you have in your life. That lengthy itemized list is a reason for you to be content. More than that though, even if all the things from that list were taken from you by mortals, even your life, then you would still have God who promises you eternal life in heaven. And if you were looking for the remains of the Son of God in this world, you will not find them because his tomb is empty. And yours will be too. And again, we read from Hebrews 13, 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Here in this world, you have the unchanging Word of God to look at. You have past believers to look at who gave you a glimpse at heavenly peace as they held onto Christ even as everything else passed away. You have the same Jesus. Finally, from Hebrews 13, 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. We have the ruins of the city where the Lord’s Temple once stood. The sacrifices of that Temple did not save, but pointed to the sacrifice made outside those city walls by Christ who while on trial said in John 18, 36 … “My kingdom is not of this world.” When we struggle to lift our eyes to the Lord for help, he has given us many reminders that he came here to help us. While Jesus was here, he said in John 14,

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Often the words faith over fear are offered to those struggling. These words are true but may lack the comfort we mean for them when helping one another through struggles or to keep up the resolutions listed in Hebrews 13. Instead, for 2024 hold onto this tangible solution and share these words, “Christ over circumstances.” The concrete answer to your fearful circumstances is Christ. The overarching work of Christ to help you, provide security, contentment, purpose and a forever home is recorded in Hebrews 9, 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. As this year closes, we wait for Christ.

As you look forward to 2024, find your help in the Lord. The answers to all your fears are found in Scripture. As the writer to the Hebrews wrote, 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Live content in the year to come with these words as your foundation, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” Amen.